In court, Blizzard secured a victory against the private server Turtle WoW. This bears a strong resemblance to a comparable legal dispute that ultimately led to WoW Classic. It seems certain that the developers of World of Warcraft will now follow up with another major announcement.
When the starting signal for WoW Classic was given on August 27, 2019, a long battle lay behind the community and Blizzard’s developers. For years, fans had been asking the MMORPG’s officials for a release of the 2005 vanilla version.
The response from Blizzard’s J. Allen Brack at BlizzCon 2013 will go down in history: “You think you do, but you don’t!” His assessment back then: Everyone had forgotten how uncomfortable, sluggish, and tedious the classic WoW was to play in the beginning. No one really wants to experience that today.
The arrogant reply from the developer did not sit well with parts of the community.
Nostalrius paved the way
This very community then showed Blizzard that Brack was wrong. Privately hosted servers, where one could play the original version of World of Warcraft, became increasingly popular. The largest project – Nostalrius – reportedly reached 800,000 registered users and more than 150,000 active players.
That was quite a few WoW fans who weren’t paying for a subscription. Blizzard therefore felt obliged to protect its rights and take action against Nostalrius. With success. The server went offline in April 2016. Numerous fans witnessed the end live in the capitals and said goodbye to each other.
But that was not the end. Petitions and countless forum posts followed, with countless comments from players who wanted to express their desire for an official classic version of World of Warcraft. They were also supported by former Blizzard developers like Mark Kern.
Blizzard’s responses initially ranged from “The implementation is extremely difficult” to “We are thinking about it.” In the end, it was a Blizzard developer named Omar Gonzalez who managed to develop a working prototype. This showed the rest of the team: It is feasible!
The fact that many decision-makers at Blizzard still did not really believe in the success of WoW Classic is evidenced by how they wanted to implement the launch: The low number of servers for the name reservation phase was a joke. The community had to fight again for language servers for Germany and other countries, as well as for individual RP worlds. In the end, the success of WoW Classic far exceeded Blizzard’s expectations.
What follows Turtle WoW?
The story repeats itself. Every historian will confirm that. Looking at World of Warcraft, we might be witnessing such a repetition live right now: Blizzard has once again taken action against a provider of a private server for WoW and has cleared the way. There, players could experience a variant of WoW Classic Plus that has been on the wish list of many WoW fans for years.
WoW Classic Plus is about taking the foundation of WoW Classic and then taking a different path after the final Naxxramas patch, rather than what happened back then with Burning Crusade. The hope of many players for such a classic variant:
- The developers have the opportunity to learn from past mistakes and add content and improvements that preserve the classic WoW experience.
- The team could revisit and finalize many of the originally planned but later scrapped concepts for WoW.
- Completely new classic content will come, into which countless fun hours can be invested.
But why is Blizzard taking action against Turtle WoW right now? Well, there are indications that the developers will actually announce an official variant of WoW Classic Plus this year. Their previous Classic seasons were already trial runs to see how successful and feasible something like this could be (and what resonates well with the community and what does not).
What are these hints? The most important hint came from WoW head Holly Longdale early this year, who promised a huge announcement for 2026 during the “State of Azeroth” on YouTube for WoW Classic fans, but was interrupted mid-sentence when she was about to get more specific. That was most certainly a teaser for the BlizzCon happening in September, where WoW Classic was also announced at the time.
When you raise anticipation in this way, you should also deliver and announce something that the community has been hoping for for a long time. Blizzard had to painfully learn this lesson at a BlizzCon through the announcement of Diablo Immortal.
However, there are further hints for Classic Plus. For example, a glaring gap in the roadmap for Classic in Q4 2026. Surveys from Blizzard specifically about Classic Plus and new content for level 60. But also some data mining finds that have uncovered Classic WoW content that was not completed in its originally planned form – such as Gilneas, Hyjal, or the Dragon Isles.
How does MeinMMO editor Karsten Scholz evaluate the situation? Classic Plus would be the logical step following the enormous successes of WoW Classic, Hardcore, and the Classic seasons. The community has not only repeatedly proven that they are eager to play the classic WoW content up and down, but exciting projects like OnlyFangs or Sauercrowd have also emerged from it.
Through these events, the over 21-year-old MMORPG has repeatedly become a topic among audiences that Blizzard usually does not reach. Various new players have gotten to know and love WoW for the first time and then progressed to Burning Crusade Classic or the modern Midnight.
I am therefore very sure that Blizzard is taking the Classic theme seriously and is working on it with considerable developer resources to expand it gradually. As I said: Classic Plus would be the next logical step, as the smaller seasons and the cycle through all expansions will eventually wear out. The strict action against Turtle WoW underscores that Blizzard does not want any competition in this area.
I am therefore very much looking forward to the BlizzCon in September and take Holly Longdale at her word: Anything less than a huge announcement for WoW Classic would be a huge disappointment. Until then, a story from my time with Vanilla WoW: World of Warcraft changed my life, although I almost didn’t even make it through the leveling phase to level 60
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